Some News for Thu Feb 4, 2010

Hooray Beer Indeed! Demolition crews begin work on the total destruction of Giants Stadium in East Rutherford New Jersey today. Will the curse be lifted?

dN

FIFA will announce the referee's for the World Cup on Friday.

DU NORD-CENTRIC

I am proud to say that there were two cool mentions of this here blog on the interwebtubenets this week...-Soccerlens announced their blog award winners in January and this week they asked those winners to talk about their favorite blogs, and Christopher Harris of EPL Talk (who won for best podcast!) said all kinds of really nice things about me and my blog. I am very very grateful to him. You can read it here.-Culture of Soccer ran an article on a trio of cool guys who are making a documentary about the rise of soccer in America in relation to our friends south of the border, called Gringos At The Gate. And in discussing the reasons behind their movie one the creators Pablo Miralles quoted me from an interview I did with Adam Spangler of This Is American Soccer. I was very honored. And I can't wait to see Pablo's movie, the trailer looks great. Read the article with my quote and see the trailer here.

A huge thanks goes out to everyone who says these nice things and spread the word about the blog. Its pretty special to me.

SALVADOR CABANAS

Reports today from Mexico City say Cabanas is sitting up and eating real food. And he will not need another surgery as the doctors have determined that the bullet in his head does not need to be removed. Here is the doctor's statement: "The bullet won't be taken out. We could do more damage if we tried to remove it. But where it's located it doesn't do a bit of harm."

FACEBOOKING

Looks like Ian Joy is headed back to Real Salt Lake. The question now is, does he have a job already or does he have to earn one?

Ian Paul Joy: "The Joyboy is in SLC. What a great flight. I slept 5 hours of a 11 hour flight and arrived in SLC! Fantastic! Big day tomorrow."

New England goalkeeper Matt Reis has had his 2 injuries fixed via off-season surgery now. He had shoulder surgery in Dec, and now a knee procedure. He is expected to be ready by June 1.

dN

OK, now we are talking - Paul James of the Toronto Globe & Mail reports that TFC has taken the first step toward a backline update - they have released Adrian Serioux. Although in some ways he was the least of their problems last year.

Orrin Schwarz of Chicago's Daily Herald also reports on the start of Fire preseason.-The team is taking their U-16 team with them to a camp in Jackson MS, and their U-18 with them to a camp in Mexico. Very cool move.

The AP reports that the NY Red Bulls have officially signed Estonian midfielder Joel Lindpere Tromso of Norway. Word comes from a Tromso spokesman. Again with the Erik Soler/Hans Backe Scandinavian connection. [UPDATED Fri Feb 5. It's not Official. Sorry for the confusion]

dN

The Washington Post reports that DC midfielder Danny Szetela has done damage to his left knee and will need some surgery to repair it. He will be out 4-6 weeks.

dN

DC has also given Chris Pontius, one of last season's Rookie of the Year finalists, a pay raise. [CORRECTED]

Bolton hosts Fulham on Saturday - Will Holden be in the game day 18 man roster?

AMERICANS IN MEXICO

Just great - Jose Francisco Torres has suffered a tear in his hamstring and will need 2-3 weeks to recover. Does that take him out of the Netherlands game?

ENGLAND

How ugly can it get a club in the Premier League? AFP reports that Portsmouth have been bought by the 4th different party just this season. Insane! How do they keep allowing the sale to be made to people with no money? This new owner is also said to be only in it for the short term an is looking for a more permanent buyer. Where is the league on all of this?